Competencies, learning objectives and learning outcomes: context and definitions

One of the key parts of any course guide is the breakdown of what students will learn – or learn to do – into competencies, learning objectives and learning outcomes. However, although the Bologna Process and its framework of qualifications for the European Higher Education Area called for "generic descriptors for each cycle based on learning outcomes and competences" (The framework of qualifications for the European Higher Education Area) and higher education systems across Europe have become more comparable, there are still discrepancies in the way different institutions and countries interpret and use terms such as competencies, learning objectives and learning outcomes. Hence, course guides of different universities may organise these concepts into one, two or even more sections.

Below, we provide a short definition of the main terms that should be used consistently within the same programme of study.

• Competencies
• Learning objectives and learning outcomes

Competencies

• The concept of competencies has become a focus within higher education since the initiation of the Bologna Process and the idea that education should lead to employability. In 2005, AQU Catalunya published an overview of competencies in the context of course guides and the European Higher Education Area (see Annex 1 of the document Eines per a l'adaptació dels ensenyaments a l'EEES), highlighting the requirement for two types: competències genèriques and competències específiques. Since then, competencies have become an established part of course guides, in which we often see categories such as those in the table below.
  
  

  Catalan	Recommended English translation
  competències bàsiques	basic competencies
  competències generals competències genèriques	general competencies generic competencies
  competències transversals	interdisciplinary competencies cross-disciplinary competencies cross-curricular competencies
  competències específiques	specific competencies

  
  Basic, general and interdisciplinary competencies are expected across all programmes of the same level, and students must acquire them to graduate. However, it is quite likely that students will have developed these competencies to some extent even before the beginning of the course. These types of competencies describe wide-ranging abilities that are needed in a variety of situations. Some course guides provide definitions in the form of noun phrases.
  
  

  Independent learning The ability to choose the best approach to extending one's knowledge and to learn new methods and technologies.

  Teamwork The ability to work in a team, whether as a member or as a leader, with the aim of contributing to projects pragmatically and responsibly and making commitments in view of the resources available.

  Foreign language Knowledge of a foreign language at an oral and written level that is consistent with graduates' future needs.

  Reasoning The ability to think critically, logically and mathematically. A capacity for abstraction, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

  
  In contrast, specific competencies have a narrower scope, and are usually the direct result of taking a particular course, so students will probably not have developed them beforehand.
  
  To finish this section, note that the adjective competent has two related nouns: competence and competency (in the plural competences and competencies). Although they can be used with slightly different meanings, for the purposes of this guide, we consider competences and competencies to be synonyms, and we use competencies for the sake of consistency.
  
  

Learning objectives and learning outcomes

• Learning objectives and learning outcomes are often used interchangeably because they both relate to teaching and learning in the classroom. Learning objectives state the learning that students should acquire. Learning outcomes state what a learner can do after completing a course of study. Because of the considerable overlap between the learning students should acquire and what they can do by the end of the course, course guides often only have one section on either objectives or outcomes, not both.